Royal Jacks Arcade alleged shooter appeared in court

A man charged with murder and tampering of evidence after being accused of shooting at a North Fort Myers arcade is set to appear in court.

Courtney Parchman, 31, was arrested in Cape Coral after a massive scene involving Lee County deputies and SWAT agents on Thursday.

Parchman is accused of being involved in a robbery and shooting death of an employee at the Royal Jacks Arcade, 505 Pondella Road, North Fort Myers, on Sunday.

It remains unclear if the victim of the shooting and Parchman knew each other.

A memorial has been established for the victim outside of the bullet-ridden arcade.

Parchman made his first appearance in court on Friday, where his defense attorney addressed the charges against him as “getting ahead of themselves.”

The attorney then claimed that the security guard was shot and killed by a person other than Parchman.

Responding to the charge of tampering, the defense stated that there was no substantial evidence of the phone being wet with the intent to destroy evidence.

The prosecution claimed to have overwhelming circumstantial evidence, stating that Parchman was circling the crime scene before the robbery occurred.

The state then mentioned that Parchman changed his story multiple times since his arrest and that his cell phone was found broken and wet inside a plastic bag.

At this time, the judge accepted a motion for pre-trial detention.